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Fig. 38 The Arago memorial by Jan Dibbets consists of over 100 bronze disks strewn across
Paris along the Meridian, each with Arago's name and its orientation marked
Dan Brown adds a sense of the primitiveness to the Louvre's courtyard by describ-
ing it a “once the scene of primeval nature-worshipping festivals”. This seems to fit
with the extraordinary appearance in the courtyard of the Louvre's glass Pyramid
over one of its entrances. I do not know if this bit of the story behind the story is
true or not, but the line of medallions does pass near the Pyramid and there is a
medallion at its base.
The Pyramid is in fact two pyramids, one above ground, pointing up, one below
pointing down into the subterranean mall which lies between the entrance to the
museum and its metro station. Brown suggests that the tomb of Mary Magdalene
lies below the downward facing point. He identifies François Mitterand, formerly
the French President and the person who commissioned the Pyramid as an architec-
tural work, as “a man rumored to move in secret circles”. As the novel ends, the
conspiracy continues…
The bronze medallions are in reality a memorial to François Arago, whose name
appears on each of them, between the letters N and S. His story was told in Chapter 6.
In the next chapter, Chapter 10, I describe this memorial across Paris and the journey
along it. The journey takes us through the scientific story of this topic, past its
locations in Paris and scenes of scientific and historic interest.
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